Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
What makes you say that? Looking at the list again:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina 
I think organizational success is one of many factors that players consider. Others include:
- Tax environment: Better than roughly 1/2 of NHL Clubs
- Additional PR/marketing opportunities No doubt there are more of these in Canada, but Calgary is a secondary market at best
- Climate You got this one in the bag
- Size of city Calgary is a fairly large city comparatively in the NHL.
- Lifestyle of city Calgary is consistently ranked as having a very high quality of life
- Where the player is from These next four are all completely dependent per player, but given the proportion of Canadian players in the league I suspect that Calgary actually comes out favorably in many of these categories
- Where the players friends/family are
- What their partner/family wants
- Where their support structures are located
In summary, I don't see why many of these listed reasons actually put the flames at a disadvantage to, say, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Maybe that's not being favorable though, even a California team like SJ:
Tax? No Alberta is better.
PR/ Marketing Opps? Not unless you're the undisputed best player on the team, and even then you are the 4th or even 5th market (Football, MLB, NBA, and now MLS supercedeing NHL.)
Climate: yep.
Size of City: sure but I am not sure that's of large benefit in this circumstance. Traffic is really the only result
Lifestyle of City: This one is really tricky IMO. Yes, there are definitely benefits to the california lifestyle, but the value of your dollar (even for a millionaire) is going to go MUCH farther in calgary than SJ. I guess it really depends what you're after!
Where the player is from/support/ friends and family: There are still very few players that originate in California, so I suspect Calgary would win this on balance.
Anyways. If you really put a lot of weight on Climate then it works. Some people do see it that way. |
Having some quoting issues, but...
Tax - I don't know region by region where the advantages are, I just know there are some better tax states.
Population - Calgary is smaller than all but one U.S. NHL market, so it is among the smallest in the league. Not sure how we can say its comparatively large
PR/Marketing - important for star players who would want access to major media markets: LA, Chicago, NY, Toronto. Calgary falls short of those.
Lifestyle: Rankings of this are often based on general population. The fact is if you are wealthy places like NY, LA, Phoenix are awesome. I think Calgary has advantages too (safety, family environment, space, outdoor activities) so it really depends on what is important to someone. Are they at a stage where they want an active night lift, or safety/space for their family?